Jacob Henry Andrews was born at 12:10 on 3/23/2011. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. Jake and Mom are both doing really well.
Jacob Henry Andrews
24
Baby Status
Today is the day. We’re checked into the hospital and are just chillin’ until they get to us. They said that they had a run on delivers so they have been busy. Not sure what to make of Jenny watching “19 Kids and Count” while in Labor and Delivery. Nurse just came in so I guess we’ll be getting started.
8:55
We’re all set up and waiting for things to pick up. Everything going to plan so far. We’ve got two nursing students tagging along for the day which has helped pass the time.
9:50
Contractions are getting regular and more frequent. Jenny is still pretty comfortable which is good and bad but they are happy with how out is progressing. We requested a ‘heplock’ (sp?) which is an IV in the wrist, rather than one in the elbow since it make it easier to move around. She is sitting on her exercise ball comfortably for now.
10:24
They broke her water and things are starting to pick up so the updates will probably be less frequent. Still have a ways to go but not going to on the phone.
5:20
Final update on this post. Check out the news here.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
“Christ beside me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ within me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me. “
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ within me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me. “
-St. Patrick
We are using these free printables to celebrate the special day for the Irish!
And there are some really nice ones of St. Patrick himself on Catholic Icing’s site here.
If I can get myself to the grocery store today, we also plan to have an Irish flag for snack. We gave up sweets for Lent, but we still want to do something festive! These shamrock toasties look yummy, too! If I wasn’t two days post due with baby #4, I might be adventurous enough to cook up a pot of Irish Beef & Guinness stew & bake some Irish Soda Bread, but I don’t know if I’ve got that in me this year. Here is a list of more ways to cook up something festive.
And lastly, here are the two new books we’re reading today:
We’ll also pick up these from our collection:
Sacrifice
So, it’s Lent. Again. Yeah, I know it comes around every year. Lent is a time to sacrifice to remind ourselves of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. The thing with me is that I either do something all the way or not at all. A couple of years ago I gave up driving to work for Lent. That was tough. So this year, Livy is old enough to understand what Lent is about. On top of that the girls decided that they were giving up candy. OK, so that might have been Jenny deciding that the girls were giving up candy. After dumping the candy bowl in the trash, Livy responded with, “This is the worst day of my life.” So what does that have to do with me? Well, Livy had a suggestion for me for what to give up for Lent. I take her to school everyday and I take my 1 quart thermos of coffee and my travel mug every morning. I even take my mug into school when we walk in. She said, “You drink too much coffee. You should give up coffee for Lent!” Seriously? Does she not realize how stressful work is right now? Not to mention that new baby is due any day now? Or how little sleep I’m already getting? (Because with three kids and a pregnant wife the combined failure rate is pretty high.) Seriously?
Well, go big or go home right? So I’ve given up coffee for Lent. And it sucks! (Sorry Mom, but it is really that bad.) But I remember every morning what the Lenten season is all about. Can’t wait for Easter.
Baby #4 Status
So I know everyone is anxious to here about Baby Andrews #4′s arrival and we’re anxious to tell you all about it. Now if he’d just decide to come out. We’re getting close though so in order to keep you up to date I’ll be updating this post periodically chronicling our status. That should be easier for us to update via our phone rather than having to do a new post for every little detail. However that means that you’ll have to refresh the page to get the latest info. (Hint: F5 is the shortcut key but don’t take our server down.)
PS: You may also want to go get caught up on pictures on our Picasa site. We were way behind posting photos and figured we should get caught up on last year at least before we post new ones from Baby #4.
3/09/2011
Morning
We had a scheduled Dr.’s appointment. Everything checked out well. Baby’s heart rate was in the 120′s so maybe he was relaxed and taking a nap. Dr. Love (yes, that is our OB’s name) said that Jenny was dilated 3-4 cm (10 is fully dilated). He said he didn’t expect us to make it past the end of the week.
Evening
In the evening there was lots of activity. Jenny had contractions most of the night. The most frequent was about 3 per hour and the guidance is to go the hospital when they are 5-6 per hour. We finally went to bed at about 11. Jenny woke me up at 1 AM with a single bad contraction. She was pretty adamant that I should wake up and do what she told me, which was to get dressed. We finally compromised and I got dressed and crawled back into bed.
3/10/2011
The contractions had died down in the early morning, but came back at the 2-3 per hour by 9. I headed to work but came home at 11 to keep Jenny company. Our friends mobilized and enacted the hand-off plan. Amy came and got Molly to take her to school and then picked her up. After picking up Molly, she came and got Violet as well. Another friend picked up Livy from school to take her over to have a slumber party with the other girls.
2:30 PM
We called the Dr.’s office but no one was available to check her so they said to just come into the hospital when we felt the time was right. Jenny was hungry so we went out to Chipotle to try to spice him out.
3:30
When we got back to the house I was excited because my new camera lens had been delivered. Just in time.
Then we decided to go for a walk to try go get things moving. It felt like old times with just Jenny, Red, and I.
4:45
Now we’re just hanging out waiting for things to pick up. Jenny’s felt kind of bad that when Amy showed up to get Violet, nothing was going on and she felt pretty good. A few contractions but maybe 1 an hour. We spent last night and this morning trying to slow things down so that we could hit a time when it would be optimal to hand off the girls. Now we’re wanting things to pick up. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
6:25
Jenny: “I’m frustrated.”
8: 17
Now we are trying shopping for pacifiers and Chinese food.
3/10/2011
8:39
Nothing happened overnight. It would have been ideal with having the girls handed off so Jenny was pretty frustrated and we’re feeling bad for Amy and Karl. I keep reminding Jenny that we’re erring on the side of caution and that she really doesn’t want to have this baby in the van on the side of the road. Since contractions come back without warning and Jenny shouldn’t be driving while having a contraction, I’m going to stay home from work today. I might try to make it in for the last meeting of the day (which is “Beer Friday”). But this morning we’re going to go get the monsters girls and go to the outlet mall to walk around a bit before lunch and naps.
3:00
Well progress was probably made in the last two days but nothing is going on today. That might mean that when things do happen they might happen fast.
3/14/2011
11:09
OK, so we weren’t expecting to be here at this point. “Here” being at home and still pregnant. Jenny has still been having contractions on and off but nothing regular. If you’ve ever watched your wife go through labor you know how much of an emotional roller-coaster it can be. Try doing that for 5+ days. No woman should have to endure that (and no husband deserves it either) ((Jenny says I probably do.)) But we’re surviving. I’m going to try to work from home some today and at least get caught up on email. Other than that we’re waiting for our Dr’s appointment Wednesday morning. Jenny isn’t looking to go two weeks past the due date this time like with Violet. I’m not going to keep updating this page anymore since the updates have become less frequent so that you don’t have to keep looking at this page and you can go back to watching for an update in your RSS reader.
Spicin’ him out
He’s coming out one way or another.
Lent/Easter Books
One idea I have seen on several Catholic mom blogs is a seasonal basket of books to follow the natural & liturgical seasons of the year. I really like the idea of pulling these special books off the shelves to highlight them during the appropriate time of the year. I have been making notes about the books we have that fit different seasons and celebrations and made wish lists for others so that I could keep an eye out for good deals (usually either on Amazon or at one of the local Half Price Books stores). Since I have purchased many of our books based on the recommendations of others, I thought I’d share the books in our Lent/Easter reading basket (and Valentine’s Day & St. Patrick’s Day are below) in case you are looking for suggestions:
Our favorite:
My First Story of Easter (Dowley)
Board books:
Catholic Baby’s First Easter (Tuttle)
Where are my Easter Eggs? (Katz)
Story books:
The Story of the Empty Tomb (Arch Books)
The Way of the Cross for Children (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)
Celebrating Lent (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)
The Easter Story (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)
I also got a couple new books for this year’s Easter baskets.
Tomie’s Book of Bible Stories (de Paola) (we ended up saving this one for another time)
The Wonder of Easter, Precious Moments (Little Goldenbook)
Fancy Nancy’s Elegant Easter (Jane O’Conner)
The Tale of the Three Trees (Hunt)
While we’re at it, here are the books we have out for Valentine’s Day & St. Patrick’s Day
Valentine’s Day:
St. Patrick’s Day:
Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland (de Paola)
Saint Patrick (St. Joseph’s Kids Books)
This year, the girls are going to receive two Irish folk tales for St. Patrick’s Day:
Jamie O’Rourke & the Big Potato (de Paola)
Jamie O’Rourke & the Pookah (de Paola)
My Dad – flashback!
I was cleaning out a folder of Olivia’s preschool art and came across her version of the My Dad certificate. Here were her answers a year ago.
My Dad is … dad.
My Dad’s favorite color is … green.
My Dad likes to eat … hamburgers.
I love my Dad because … he does silly stuff.
She captured him pretty well, too! 
My Lenten Promises – 2011
This Lent (Ash Wednesday is in 2 days!), I promise to:
1) Follow the daily lenten prompts in Small Steps for Catholic Moms – companion journal. There is a simple suggestion for fasting, praying & giving in the midst of the family each day. I think with a new baby in the house, this one-stop shopping will be a good fit this year.
2) Read something spiritual. I tried this one last year with a much more advanced book and couldn’t quite get off the ground. Hopefully, by starting with a simpler book, I’ll have more success this year. I got a head start and read the first chapter and I think it is a really good fit for me right now. Back to the basics.
For the girls, I plan to keep a basket of books about the life of Christ and/or the Easter story in the living room and make a Lamb of God calendar to count the days to Easter. We had a lot of fun with it last year. Lastly, the girls & I are giving up sweets, except for Sundays and birthdays.
Other good ideas from past years and/or suggestions I’ve heard recently include:
1) Improve my housekeeping habits by spending 30 min cleaning each day (involving actual cleaners, not just picking up) OR decluttering.
2) Monitor my internet use for a few weeks and then consider something like this to limit use for the remainder of Lent (and beyond?).
3) Spend some quality time with my hubby for a once a week in-home date night using 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work book.
4) Do something small, but fun, for the girls each day. Work on being a “Yes” mom.
There’s always next year to tackle one of these! What are your plans?
My Dad
Yesterday was “Donuts with Dad” day at Molly’s preschool. She filled out a certificate for Daddy that is super cute. It reads as follows:
My Dad’s name is … JR
My Dad’s favorite color is … green
My Dad likes to eat … spaghetti
I love my Dad because … he works so hard and he makes me happy.
Isn’t that the cutest??